This article is a beginner's guide to game development that goes beyond just programming languages and game engines. The game industry involves multiple fields, such as mathematics, art, psychology, and cinema. Therefore, mastering game engines and programming languages alone is not enough to develop a game. This guide provides insights into everything you need to know about game development, from ideation to deployment, to create your gaming software and apps. It's an excellent resource for beginners looking to get started in the game development field.
To begin developing an Android game, three essential elements of the development environment need to be selected. These are:
A game engine is a software platform that comes with a collection of libraries and tools required for game development. It allows game developers to concentrate on creating and optimizing game content while offering pre-built features like graphics, animation, sound, input device support, and game loops. These engines typically include an integrated development environment (IDE) and other tools to configure features and design, develop, compile, and export games to various platforms, including Android.
There are three ways to use a game engine: use an unmodified game engine, customize an existing one, or develop a new one.
The easiest way to develop Android games is by using a game engine without modifying it. For this, you need to select a game engine that fulfills the requirements of Android development.
Game engines that can be used for Android game development without customization are available, including:
The choice of the integrated development environment (IDE) for developing Android games depends on the game engine used and the developer's workflow. Many game engines provide a game editor for design and code editing, commonly used in conjunction with Android Studio by game developers.
A game editor is a software tool that integrates game design features with code editing and can help game designers complete development tasks without writing code. For developers creating their first Android game, it is recommended to use a game editor along with Android Studio, as game editors provide a user interface and a set of tools specifically tailored to game design. They also integrate asset design and code editing tasks, focus on the supported programming language, and include modeling and rendering tools.
Android Studio is the primary integrated development environment (IDE) for creating Android applications. It's recommended to install Android Studio in addition to any other IDEs you plan to use. This IDE allows you to:
For advanced game developers developing games on Windows using Visual Studio, the Android Game Development Extension (AGDE) can be added as a target. This option is suitable for games already in development using a Visual C++ project. AGDE provides the following capabilities:
Here are some of the fundamentals of gaming programming:
Game mechanics are a significant contributor to the success of games in reaching a vast audience. They refer to the various sub-parts of a game system that are controlled by the system. To better understand game mechanics, it is essential to break down the different components that make up the game mechanics. In the following sections, we will describe these various pieces in detail.
As illustrated in the diagram, the game system has several functions. It manages the loading and saving of files and facilitates the execution of the intro animation using audio and graphic elements. Additionally, it ensures that the graphics and sound components work seamlessly in conjunction with user input while the game interface is being used. Lastly, the game system ensures that various parts of the game, such as graphics, sound, user input, artificial intelligence, and network, work in harmony to provide an optimal gaming experience.
The resources in a game refer to the necessary files on the hard disk. These files include configuration files that describe the default settings in which the game will run. If available, they also contain the video file for the intro that will be played when the game first starts and files that provide information to the user about the game before it begins.
The game model refers to the state of the game graphics, music, and text files that have been loaded into memory from the game's resources. The image files are stored either in the computer's memory or in the texture memory of the video card. Information about sections, scores, and other aspects of the game is kept in variables and data structures that are part of the game model.
This part of the game development process involves taking the graphics, music, and other information from the source and transferring it to the memory (game model). It also saves any changes made to scores, saved games, or recorded gameplay back to the source.
The process of uploading includes configuration files, chapter files, image files, music and sound files, 3D model files, video files, and help files. On the other hand, the process of saving includes score files and any other documents that need to be saved during gameplay.
This crucial aspect of game development is responsible for the visuals of the game, which are essential to its success (unless it's a text-based game). This part involves painting the screen and handling the following tasks:
Playing videos
Interaction is an essential element of game mechanics, as it enables the user to engage with the game. The game system always interacts with the user through various hardware devices such as keyboards, mice, and cameras that receive user input. User input is a significant aspect of game mechanics that employs hardware devices to allow the user to interact with the game. This enables the user to control their character in the game, use the game interface, review score files, and configure system and game features.
If you want to appreciate the significance of sound and music in video games, try muting the sound while playing your favorite game. You'll quickly realize that the game loses much of its appeal without sound. Essentially, the sound is as important to a game as the graphics.
The role of sound and music in a game includes:
Artificial Intelligence plays an essential role in the gaming experience, particularly when it comes to the behavior of the enemies in the game. The more human-like their behavior, the more engaging the gameplay will be. This is not just limited to enemies, as even non-playable characters in open-world games exhibit behaviors such as looking at their watches, wiping their foreheads in hot weather, yielding to the player character, engaging in arguments, attacking the player for mistreating animals, and so on. All these actions fall under the umbrella of artificial intelligence.
The network component of game mechanics allows for multiplayer or online play, enabling more than one person to play the game. This involves sending and receiving information to and from the game server, which updates the game with the latest changes. Network functionality includes:
The success of a game heavily relies on its various components, such as graphics, music, physics, and artificial intelligence. Two conditions need to be met to enhance these elements and accommodate the increasing complexity of games: software optimization and advancements in hardware technology. While software optimization and algorithm development progress slowly, hardware technology advances much faster.
Programming languages provide a standard format for programmers to develop software and commands, enabling efficient communication between humans and computers. In the context of video game development, programming languages are crucial for creating games. While certain programming languages like C++ are commonly associated with console game development, developing games with various languages, each with different capabilities, is possible.
Learning C++ is recommended for game development as it is a high-level language that covers the basics of object-oriented programming (OOP) and is used to create console and Windows games. It uses OpenGL or similar frameworks for graphics, is fast to compile, and allows for extensive memory management. Although it is not easy to learn compared to other programming languages, a wealth of literature and online communities are available to help you.
C# is advantageous for video game development due to the XNA framework, a set of tools and workspaces provided by Microsoft specifically for creating games on Xbox or Windows platforms. C# is often compared to an automatic transmission car in contrast to C++, which is likened to a manual transmission car. If you use the Unity game engine, which requires coding game scripts in C#, you will be working with a language developed from the game engine’s core using C++ code.
Java is a popular programming language among game developers because it offers support for multithreading and sockets. This allows games to utilize CPU resources efficiently without affecting the user's experience. Java also provides an advantage for developing multiplayer games as it facilitates the creation of sockets.
JavaScript is a crucial technology in web development, and it is used in over 95% of websites worldwide. It has also become a key language in HTML5 game development, powering popular games such as Diablo JS, Browser Quest, and HexGL. Some of the benefits of using JavaScript include its versatility, as it can be used for both front-end and back-end development, its ability to enhance the user experience with interactive features, and its widespread adoption and support from the development community
Game development involves creating interactive video games for various platforms. To get started in game development, you need to have a good understanding of game engines and programming languages. Game development requires a good understanding of game engines and programming languages. Choosing the right game engine and programming language for your project is important, as then following the game development process to create an engaging and entertaining game.
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